For those who have been following this thread I have enjoyed an afternoon's work looking into Mrs Jane MOSS and I hope dunscore will soon be online to review the details.
Well Mrs Jane Moss was full of surprises, many of them negative.
How or why she managed to became the adoptive parent of your Maudie, I cannot fathom!
The links from 1884 and 1885, above which I have given describe how she came to the home of Henry JONES in the Maryborough area of Qld.
Depending on whose testimony you believe in the maintenance case, , she was brought to Australia by the JONES couple on a return trip from England to meet up with her husband, Thomas MOSS already here.
The JONES’s had been married in 1859 (B000006a) (her maiden name Mary Ann HUDSON) and among their children was James, c 1865, William and the last child to them Ruth. (1876/1053)
The certificate of the UK MOSS marriage is digitized at Ancestry and shows her surname as ROBERTS and his father’s name as William MOSS. The birth of their child Mary is noted in this thread.
The trouble seemed to begin after Mrs Moss moved in with the JONES’s and she became ‘the other woman ‘ and caused disruption to the marriage. There are conflicting stories about this situation and possibly by the mid 1870’s, Henry had moved to a home with Mrs Jane MOSS.
The next I find them is at Maryland QLD in 1890 where according to testimony, they had been known for 16 years in the district and regarded with suspicion. Together with James JONES, Henry’s son, Jane and Henry were tried and convicted for horse stealing and served time in Armidale Gaol
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76983615 And
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/251637280The Ancestry records of them at the gaol give extra information including a description of Mrs MOSS, aged 48 who was a nurse and who had arrived in Australia in 1875. I cannot decipher the ship's name.
I have no sightings of either of them after this until Mrs MOSS appears at Vineyard. Others may have more success.
Once settled in Vineyard, there are easy to find references to her wonderful fund-raising and catering efforts and the coming and going of visitors.
I do not know at what point Henry JONES “became Mrs Moss’s brother” but the pair were absolute pillars of the church and community.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/86217974?searchTerm=%22%20%20moss%20vineyard%22~20%20-irish%20-valeStruck by lightning
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/85855883 She stuck to the story of siblingship with Henry JONES to the very end of his life andseemed to have persuaded others of the family to do so too.
Death notice
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16078001 I cannot quite rule in or out this report sighting of a bigamous marriage in Surry Hills for one Jane MOSS around 1891/2. I cannot see a date for the marriage and after all, Jane MOSS is not such an unusual name.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/251639533 Sue